In preparation of its launch in June, international up-scale hotel chain, Radisson Blu, has hired Jens Brandin as its new General Manager.
Mr Brandin is a career hotelier, and is no stranger to the Carlson Rezidor group. He has worked with the company for close to 16 years in Ireland, UK and Germany, and held the position of general manager at Radisson Hotel Kaliningrad, Russia, for more than three years before his Nairobi posting.
As general manager, Mr Brandin is responsible for setting up Radisson Blu, Nairobi; supervising all newly hired staffs, and getting customers to patronize the five-star hotel. The company started hiring staffs late last year.
In an interview with Business Daily, Mark Willis, vice president Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa for the Hotel Group, said “the key remit for this appointment was to ensure we brought in someone with not only great commercial expertise but also a person committed to other key elements of the role such as people development.”
The hotel is the first for Rezidor Group in Nairobi; the chain announced plans to break into the Kenyan market in 2012 and had earlier set a target of starting operations in August 2014.
The $77 million luxury hotel, set to open in June, is largely owned by Kenyan businessman, Michael Kairu. Mr Kairu controls a 58.7 percent stake in Elgon Road Development – the special purpose vehicle behind the luxury hotel, backed by four Scandinavian private equity funds namely Swedfund, Finnfund, Danish investment fund IFU and Norfund.
Norfund does not own equity in the hotel but provided part of the Sh811.8 million, approximately $9 million loan advanced to the project through Afrinord, a joint venture fund backed by four Nordic countries, as reported by Business Daily.
Radisson Blu, will be in competition with a number of established five star hotels in Nairobi such as; Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Hemingways, and Villa Rosa Kempinski.
The hotel has 271 rooms, a health club, three restaurants, pool bar and grill, spa, swimming pool, sauna, an underground car parking with 800 spaces, and a 600-square-metre ballroom for conferences.
It’s presence in Nairobi raises Kenya’s profile as a top investment destination and also increases the number of luxury hotels available for business, leisure, and tourists.
